The four buildings it is acquiring are 1708 N. Shoreline Blvd., 1010 and 1015 Joaquin Road and 1058 Huff Road. Together they total about 240,000 square feet. While Google did not disclose the seller or the price, all of the addresses listed as belonging to Alza Corp., which was acquired by Johnson & Johnson in 2001. Alza announced last year that it would be downsizing.

The four buildings are located immediately south and east of Google's headquarters at 1600 Amphitheater Pkwy. Three of the four buildings on the sublease market--2375 Garcia Ave., 2350 Bayshore Parkway and 1500 Salado Drive--are located only slightly further away to the West of Google's headquarters. The fourth building on the sublease market is 395 Page Mill Road in Palo Alto.

Google spokesperson Andrew Pederson tells GlobeSt.com that as part of the company's aggressive growth over the past several years it leased a substantial amount of extra square footage to ensure that facilities would be able to keep pace with sustained growth and hiring. With regard to the sublease space, he says that as the company focuses on making the most efficient use of the space it has "consolidating Googlers into existing offices and subleasing less conveniently located space makes much more sense than building out new areas."

While both moves are related in that they allow the company to move employees closer together, Pederson says the four newly acquired buildings are separate in that the employees in the buildings to be subleased were relocated prior to the acquisition. They are part of the company's "strategy for long-term growth in Mountain View" that will be occupied "in the future as our needs dictate," he says.

Google now controls approximately 3 million square feet around the Bay Area in Mountain View, Palo Alto, Sunnyvale, San Bruno and San Francisco. The sublease space is being marketed by CB Richard Ellis.